Russia Backs Syrian Forces In Major Assault On Insurgents

Russia and Syria carried out what appeared to be the first major coordinated assaults on Syrian insurgents on Wednesday, targeting rebels in the west rather than Islamic State militants, a monitor said.

The combined assault hit towns close to the main north-south highway that runs through major cities in the mainly government-held west of Syria, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group which tracks the conflict via a network of sources within the country.

Ground attacks by Syrian government forces and their militia allies using heavy surface-to-surface missile bombardments hit at least four insurgent positions and there were heavy clashes, the head of the Observatory Rami Abdulrahman said.

Syria's northern neighbor Turkey summoned Russia's ambassador for the third time in four days over what it said were repeated violations of its air space by Russian warplanes since their air strikes began last week.

Russia's air campaign in Syria, at a time when relations with the West are at a post-Cold War low over Ukraine, has caught Washington and its allies on the back foot and risks an incident between Russian and U.S. warplanes, now operating in the same country for the first time since World War Two.

Moscow says it shares the West's aim of preventing the spread of Islamic State militants who have seized much of Syria since civil war grew out of anti-government protests in 2011.

But fighters on the ground and Western nations have said Russia has mainly targeted rebel groups that have seized government-held areas in western Syria, and is aimed at shoring up President Bashar al-Assad rather than combating hard-liners.

Syrian state media made no mention of the coordinated attacks, saying instead that Russian aircraft had targeted Islamic State positions in the Aleppo countryside, where its fighters hold territory.

State television said government forces had targeted militants at the Sha'ar gas field and village of Qaryatain in Homs province, as well as Atshan, a town to the east of Russian air force bombardments in Hama province on Wednesday.

 

Source: Reuters